Sony announces plans for PS1 emulation on the PSP

[EvilBob46]

Advanced Media Network (http://psp.advancedmn.com/) has details (http://psp.advancedmn.com/article.php?artid=3147) on Sony's upcoming PS1 emulation endeavor for the PSP. Apparently, Sony didn't announce a launch date, but they "did confirm plans to have up to 7,000 PSOne titles available via the service by the end of 2007. Several titles announced for launch were revealed, including Tomb Raider, Castlevania: SOTN, Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VIII, and Silent Hill."

This sounds like a good deal, but leaves far too many questions unanswered. How are the controls going to translate to the PSP when so many games designed specifically for the platform still control terribly? And how much are these titles going to cost? Sony does not have a lot of experience with this sort of thing, and all of a sudden they're going to offer 2 GB games for download (as would be the case with a 4-disc game like Final Fantay VIII, even in compressed form)? I'll believe it when I see it.

[devicelimit]

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiige Racerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

[Predation]

those 3-5 disc games will fit easily on a UMD. the important thing to remember is that due to the ps1 having a very small cache, the additional cds are almost sickeningly redundant. Everything that takes up the majority of a disc, music, models, etc. have to be present on all discs. Really after all that is on, there is only 100-200 megs left for actual content. Since there will only be one disc required, all of that redundant material can be thrown out. Ultimately a 2 gig game could become 900megs-1g in size.

[hotdrop]

So instead of making new games they are gonna sell you the same games you already bought again. Great, im loving it already, greatest idea since well, UMD movies, and bluray

[Tyrant]

There's 7000 PSOne games? Even if I were to consider all region's PS1 libraries, what the fark?!

Anyway, while it's already been posted, I don't give two shits:

RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDGE RACERRRRRRRR!!!!

[kokyunage]

So instead of making new games they are gonna sell you the same games you already bought again. Great, im loving it already, greatest idea since well, UMD movies, and bluray

To be fair I think they got the idea from Nintendo.

[rahvii]

those 3-5 disc games will fit easily on a UMD.
Yeah that would be cool IF TEH UMDS WERE REWRITABLE!!11. Remember the service is online, and you have to download some cd images or something, so start saving for new memory sticks.

How are the controls going to translate to the PSP when so many games designed specifically for the platform still control terribly?
PSP has almost every button the psone controller has, also we know that most PSone games dont need analog, since almost no game was the designed to really need them (like Mario 64 does for example). Almost all games can be played by digital buttons without problems. The only question is on the lack of R2 and L2 buttons. Maybe the'll make some mods on the games to support some kind of combination of buttons to emulate their functions.

[Heretic Machine]

So instead of making new games they are gonna sell you the same games you already bought again. Great, im loving it already, greatest idea since well, UMD movies, and bluray

I like having my old games in a portable format. Hence my anticipation for FFVI Advance. As long as these games are of a reasonable price, with good emulation, I see no problems here.

[Grifter]

This is a great Idea.

I love Sony bashing just as much as the next guy but I think you all need to give it a fucking rest already. How can this be a bad thing, short of all games being $20.

Symphony of the night is worth the price of admission alone.

[UnderHero5]

I just hope they are cheap, because this is the last hope I have for my PSP.
After owning it since launch and having jack shit come out for it SINCE launch, some old PS1 games are actually sounding very good right about now.
If they are a couple bucks a pop (no more than 3 dollars) then I'll definitely grab a few.

However, we all know they will charge $10 a game. You know damn well they will.

Edit: I know I sound cheap (I am)... but I'm not willing to pay them very much for 10 year old games that they are putting very very little to no work into. And if they are offering 7000 games (!) then I can expect pretty much all of the PS1's catalog to be on there, which means there will be MANY games I want... and I'm not willing to spend hundreds of dollars for said games when they will essentially be games I already paid for 5 - 10 years ago.

[hotdrop]

How can this be a bad thing, short of all games being $20. ? I think 20 is really optimistic, think 30ish

[mkelehan]

I'm worried about the different aspect ratio, lower resolution, and two fewer buttons. It'll be a problem.

[Salesmunn]

How can this be a bad thing, short of all games being $20. ? I think 20 is really optimistic, think 30ish

$20!? What are you nuts? Who would pay $20 for these when you can get top notch PS2 titles for that price??

[Heretic Machine]

$20!? What are you nuts? Who would pay $20 for these when you can get top notch PS2 titles for that price??

The same people who pay $35 for GBA and DS games. Which are people who have a use for portable gaming. It seems like quite a few people (including game companies) don't understand that portable games have a different appeal than console games.

[Vanthar]

I'd say the games will not all be priced the same. FF7 will go for $10-15, but some random game may only go for $5. These seem like fair prices to me considering the bandwidth they're using to let you download them.

The issue of game size shouldn't really be a problem. As stated before those multi-disk games were mostly reusing tons of resources and had terrible compression. Some decent compression format for these and you're looking at being able to fit a handful of ps1 games on a memory stick.

PS1 already has plenty of extremely featured, developed, and compatible emulators for the PC. We can assume that Sony should be able to mimic these easily. Aspect ratios and lower resolutions shouldn't matter as the emulators allow you to customize these things already.

[BGSS]

It's a downloadable service right? Does that mean everyone has to go out and buy 1gig (or even bigger for certain games) PRO DUOs to even play them?

[Kefkataran]

First time I've wanted a PSP in quite a while. I could at least see myself picking up one once they're cheaper for this stuff.

[Khash]

I just hope they are cheap, because this is the last hope I have for my PSP.
After owning it since launch and having jack shit come out for it SINCE launch, some old PS1 games are actually sounding very good right about now.
If they are a couple bucks a pop (no more than 3 dollars) then I'll definitely grab a few.

However, we all know they will charge $10 a game. You know damn well they will.

Edit: I know I sound cheap (I am)... but I'm not willing to pay them very much for 10 year old games that they are putting very very little to no work into. And if they are offering 7000 games (!) then I can expect pretty much all of the PS1's catalog to be on there, which means there will be MANY games I want... and I'm not willing to spend hundreds of dollars for said games when they will essentially be games I already paid for 5 - 10 years ago.

So you're willing to way $5 for Geometry wars but only $3 for FFVII?

I'd be willing to pay $20 a game. Many titles can't even be found in stores. And some of the eBay prices are astounding. As a person who wasn't into videogames for the PSone days, I'm very excited to be able to finally play many of the classics I missed out on.

[Savok]

I love Sony, lets take the worst aspects of the competition and make them our own.

That said, SOTN for PAL countries is a blessing since they shipped so fucking few of the game the first time round. I'm gonna laugh if they somehow fuck PAL again with it.

[Chalex]

It's a downloadable service right? Does that mean everyone has to go out and buy 1gig (or even bigger for certain games) PRO DUOs to even play them?If they reencode the FMVs they'll be fine.

[TrackZero]

Awesome. Wonder how all those titles will play with one bad analog nub. ;)

[Mr_Snuffle]

I think this is a case of typical sony PR. I don't think emulation is exactly what's happening here. I'm expecting it's more likely that they have found a way to quickly port games to work on the PSP. Emulation is an extremely expensive process (CPU-wise I mean). I have serious doubts that the PSP has the power to run the full hardware emulation of a PS1

Someone feel free to prove me wrong

My thoery is that they have this process for quickly porting software, and will be able to compress various art sources to make games reasonably online distribution friendly.

I call total BS on those numbers though, I think if 7000 games are playable on the PSP by the next of next year, Satan will be zooming around his crib on ice skates

[mightbe]

Mmm. Silent Hill. Now lets get some fucking Vagrant Story (Redone for Widescreen), SOTN, and Puzzle Fighter.

Get on that shit, sony.

[Metal Jesus]

As a PSP owner, I think this is a great idea. I didn't own the original PS1...instead getting into consoles with the PS2. There are a bunch of older games I would gladly pay to play like FFVII, G-Police, etc...

[Samurai Joe]

Sony should sell some sort of ripping software so that users can rip their current PSone library. The software would be able to reconize whether or not the disk is legimate or not, like an un-modded PSone. I would rather pay $59.99 for a piece of software like this instead of buying my software all over again.

[hotdrop]

keep in mind as well that sony dosent own many games and a lot of companines wont give sony premission to republish their games and a lot of companies are long dead, so dont expect to see you fave titiles any time soon.

Sony should sell some sort of ripping software so that users can rip their current PSone library. The software would be able to reconize whether or not the disk is legimate or not, like an un-modded PSone. I would rather pay $59.99 for a piece of software like this instead of buying my software all over again. Thats probably a massive software lisence violation right there so unlikely to happen

[Samurai Joe]

keep in mind as well that sony dosent own many games and a lot of companines wont give sony premission to republish their games and a lot of companies are long dead, so dont expect to see you fave titiles any time soon.

Thats probably a massive software lisence violation right there so unlikely to happen

I agree with you 100% that this would be practically impossible, but don't we already own the license to the game since we own a legitimate copy of it?

These licensing, fair use, things get so fricking confusing.

Since we're allowed to play these games on a PS2 (or even PS3) using backwards compatibility, shouldn't we be allowed to rip that exact content on a PSP?

[AversionFX]

So instead of making new games they are gonna sell you the same games you already bought again. Great, im loving it already, greatest idea since well, UMD movies, and bluray


Assuming they don't charge 40$+ for PS1 UMD discs, I could easily see myself buying games like SotN. Having some of those classics available in a portable would just be very nice.

[rjcc]

they may be able to compress the textures a lot, due to the psp being a lot more powerfu, so the games won't be as big.

[Dr Quincy]

Awesome. Wonder how all those titles will play with one bad analog nub. ;)

And only two shoulder buttons.

[bapenguin]

And only two shoulder buttons.

Sony isn't going to worry about MINOR things like CONTROLS and GAMEPLAY. They just need to sell you that download and then wash their hands clean of it.

[benig]

Sony doesn't seem at all concerned about licensing from the publishers. Maybe part of their contract for developing for the PS1 was to allow SOny to redistribute the game later?

[Shifter]

As a PSP owner since day one, i'm really pleased to hear about this. I'd totally get on a little Vagrant Story, or FFwhatever. I think $20 would be too steep -- for download they should cost $9.99 and it'd be a done deal.

[Samurai Joe]

As a PSP owner since day one, i'm really pleased to hear about this. I'd totally get on a little Vagrant Story, or FFwhatever. I think $20 would be too steep -- for download they should cost $9.99 and it'd be a done deal.

$9.99 for every title sounds like a fair deal to me.

[holysin]

$9.99 for every title sounds like a fair deal to me.

It'd be nicer if it was free if you already owned a copy of the game in question. After all, this isn't a port, it's emulation.

[AntB]

$9.99 for every title sounds like a fair deal to me.

10$ for a title is not a fair deal. Fuck that.

I will not pay that much money for rehashed crap to be shoved down my throat.

I will stick to my emulators if sony does that. And I will continue to pirate their fucking games if they cost just as much as console games do and do not provide half the enjoyment or longetivity. Anyone play Samurai Warriors? God fucking damn it. Same level x 50 =/ a game.

$5 is fair. Im actually far more likely giving sony 50$ for 10 games, then $50 for 5. If games are $10, I will be far more picky, and in the end I will probably give them much less money.

I pirated about 20 games for my PSP, the ones I played longer than 30 minutes and actually enjoyed, I bought. MegaMan, Daxter, GTA. That's all. Out of 20 games.
Fuck sony for not pushing game support on that damn thing harder.

/rant off
//disgruntled PSP user with a broken PSP screen.
///which he broke with his forehead playing daxter.

[pseudopseudo]

I think I'm the only person in existence who isn't fed up with their PSP. I found enough games to keep me busy (GTA, Lumines, and Hot Shots Golf being my top three, and then any emulators I feel like using for old games), I use it as my mp3 player and I rip movies to it for long trips. The lack in game selection never bothered me because I don't sit down and actually play it that often. I guess the only gripe I would have with it is that yes, the controls are a bit sluggish and downright awkward at times. That, and the little UMD discs keep coming apart.

PSOne on PSP rumors have been floating around since before E3, even, with someone going so far back then as to even mock up a screenshot that was floating around a while.

I think a download service is a great idea. I'm betting on $10-$15 a download. I don't think they can go any lower (with the exception of maybe some VERY generic third party titles), because with how quickly codes are cracked these days, there's no doubt that within a couple weeks/months of the service being opened, all the PSOne games will show up on the net somewhere to download, for free. They're going to need all the money they can get out of the gate just to even try to break even with this.

[Dracula-X]

I'm expecting it's more likely that they have found a way to quickly port games to work on the PSP. Emulation is an extremely expensive process (CPU-wise I mean). I have serious doubts that the PSP has the power to run the full hardware emulation of a PS1The rough rule of thumb is the emulation host needs to have 10x the processing power of the emulated cpu (also assuming the host has an adequate PPU/GPU to work with). The PS1 ran on a slightly custom 33mhz mips 3000 and by today's standard primitive video hardware (geometry engine and 1 meg of video ram and 2 megs ram. The PSP has two 333mhz custom mips processors, and video hardware comparable to the PS2 (more than enough ram/vram). On paper, the PSP is more than capable of doing it, it's just a matter of writing an emu from the bottom up taking advantage of the PSP hardware.

Resolution shouldn't be an issue either. The ps1 supported resolutions from 256x240 to 640x480 (ntsc), but the overwhelming majority never got close to the latter because it left close to nothing for textures in the framebuffer).

[SexualChoc]

Final Fantasy VII.... portable.... HELL YEAH!

I knew I got a PSP for a reason. This is it.

[Nadreck]

I'm not entirely sure why this is news. Georgey-boy stated that they were going to be offering PS1 games for PSP via download back in March in the GDC keynote.

[f1sh3r]

this plus the lack of anything that looks good on the horizon has me tempted to trade my psp in and buy a ds lite. it just isn't enough.

[Snipee]

I sold my psp quite awhile ago. And I was sitting at work in the back playing my DS lite. And thinking wow...you know what would be great playing FF7-9 on the psp. hmmm I wonder... let me go check evil av and see if anything has been mentioned. lol nice. thanks